Double your fantasy, double your fun

By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM The New York Times Orlando, Fla. Published January 5, 2013 - 5:17am Last Updated January 5, 2013 - 10:30am

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Disney expands key part of storied Orlando complex

Fireworks burst over Cinderella’s Castle at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. With a new generation of princesses and hordes of visitors wanting to hug them, Disney doubled Fantasyland — the largest expansion in the 41-year history of the Magic Kingdom. (EDWARD LINSMIER / NYT)

YOU HAVE A GREAT GIG,” I said to the mermaid as I sat down beside her in the giant clamshell. “You don’t have to schlep around.”

We pressed our heads together and smiled for a photograph as she replied, “But I wish I had legs.”

So goes small talk in Fantasyland. Correction: New Fantasyland, where old-guard princesses like Snow White and Cinderella are suddenly neighbours with the next generation of Disney box office royalty: Ariel of The Little Mermaid and Belle of Beauty and the Beast. The kingdom, you see, has undergone some changes.

It was Dec. 5, the night before the grand opening of New Fantasyland — the largest expansion in the 41-year history of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. — and the birth date of its founder. I was there to suss out the new additions, including Ariel’s Grotto (where, like me, visitors can have their picture taken with the Little Mermaid); Bonjour! Village Gifts where aspiring princesses can snap up $64.95 Belle costumes; and the Be Our Guest Restaurant where, in defiance of Florida weather, soft, romantic snow perpetually falls outside the windows.

Having been to this park more than two dozen times, beginning with family vacations when I was three, I figured I was qualified to review an expansion. I remember gingerly wrapping my arms around Pluto. I remember walking into the Haunted Mansion, fear rising in me like the ghosts that would soon materialize. I remember being surprised, as I peeked over the edge of my boat in It’s a Small World, to spy hundreds of pennies shimmering in the water. I wondered how many of those wishes would come true.

So of course, I longed to see how Fantasyland had changed. At the same time, I was apprehensive. Might the old magic be eclipsed by slick, new attractions? Would Disney be able to strike a delicate balance between nostalgia and innovation?

I came to find out.

Fantasyland is the most popular land in the most popular Disney park in the world (the company has 11 theme parks in the United States, Europe and Asia). Still, Disney had a problem. It had successfully minted a new generation of princesses in movie theatres— but it had nowhere to put them in the park. Millions of little girls and boys grew up in the 1990s with The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Yet Ariel and Belle had neither ride nor realm in the Magic Kingdom.

If Disney were the White Rabbit, it might have been muttering to itself, “I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!” It was time to catch up. And so about five years ago the company’s Imagineers — who have expertise in 140 different disciplines like electrical engineering, landscape architecture and graphic design — began dreaming up ways to literally put visitors into their favourite new fairy tales, from eating croque monsieur in the Beast’s castle upon a hill, to riding through the Little Mermaid’s grotto under the sea. They devised methods to make meeting the characters from those tales more intimate (perhaps a bit too intimate in the case of the Little Mermaid, who poses with fans in a bandeau top) and more orderly than the street encounters that I grew up with, which could be chaotic. And while they were at it, they looked for ways to make waiting in line entertaining.

To make all this fantasy a reality, Disney more than doubled the size of Fantasyland, to 8.4 hectares from four hectares. Along the way, there were casualties, like Snow White’s Scary Adventures, a ride that had been in the park since it opened in 1971. Purists grumble when a classic ride like that is shuttered. Yet evolution is as much a part of Disney’s DNA as mouse ears. The parks are always changing.

“It can’t just be about nostalgia,” Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, told me the next morning as I stood beside him in a rose garden peering up at the spires of Cinderella’s Castle.

I am a fan of the parks, but not a blind devotee. The Magic Kingdom is saccharine, expensive and homogeneous. At the same time, it is a place where families can be silly together. It is a showcase for technological innovation and logistics. And, for better or for worse, it is a place devoid of the responsibilities and heartache of the grown-up world.

And so it was with hope, and a hint of trepidation, that I stepped into a new Fantasyland.

When touring a fake French village, it helps to bring along a real Frenchman. Olivier Flament, director of resorts revenue management or Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S., suggested we begin at Enchanted Tales With Belle, an attraction that resembles the French country cottage home of Belle and her father in the film Beauty and the Beast.

Inside, visitors meet Belle and use props to help re-create the fairy tale. It’s part role-play, part princess meet-and-greet, and part of Disney’s broader plan to make visitors’ interaction with its characters longer and more personal. As a child, I met characters mainly by stumbling upon them in the streets: a delightful surprise. But because there were no lines, it generally rewarded only the pushiest children and paparazzi parents. The upside of the newer arrangements is that there are not only lines, but also Disney cast members to ensure that each child has a chance to meet a character. Plus, it provides a splashier backdrop for photos. In Ariel’s Grotto, for instance, you meet the mermaid underwater in front of a supersized seashell.

The trade-off, however, is serendipity: that lucky feeling when, out of the blue, you run into Donald Duck. When I asked an Imagineer about this, I was told there would still be street appearances, though I can’t help but wonder if there will be fewer of them. In 2013, other princesses — including Cinderella, Rapunzel and Tiana — will have their own meet-and-greet domains in the new Princess Fairytale Hall, suggesting that chance encounters on the sidewalks will be less frequent.

Princesses aside, the real eyepopper at Enchanted Tales With Belle is Lumiere, the flamboyant talking candelabrum from Beauty and the Beast, and one of the most advanced Audio-Animatronics characters Disney has ever created. He moves with the whimsical, boneless freedom of a cartoon character and yet he is three-dimensional. As he sat atop a mantle talking to the audience, moving his eyes and lips and flailing his arms like a cartoon in 3-D form, I experienced what in Disney parlance is known as an “eyes up, jaws down” moment. When I was a child, I was dazzled by the Audio-Animatronics in Pirates of the Caribbean. With age came the ability to see the workings of the magic. But Lumiere makes even a grown-up say wow.

I asked Tim Warzecha, a senior project manager with Walt Disney Imagineering, about the technology. “This is a difficult question,” he said. “Lumiere is real.”

I suddenly felt like Alice trying to converse with the Caterpillar in Wonderland.

“Our characters,” Warzecha said, “are real.”

The Beauty and the Beast theme continued at the Be Our Guest Restaurant, Disney’s most immersive and sophisticated eating experience. The entire park is full of themed dining spots, like Tony’s Town Square Restaurant (inspired by Lady and the Tramp), but none as transporting. At Be Our Guest, a stone bridge leads to wrought-iron gates and into the castle where there are three dining rooms. The main area is the ballroom with a six-metre coffered ceiling painted with clouds and cherubs. Beyond 5 1/2-metre tall windows, snow falls like ticker tape against a night sky.

But the most compelling room is the West Wing, modelled after the dark, forbidden space in the film. On a table, a glass bell jar containing a red rose slowly sheds its petals (the Beast can become a prince again only if he falls in love before all the petals fall off). I thought this dying rose effect was born of high-tech artistry, but Imagineers told me that it’s one of the oldest and simplest illusions: Pepper’s Ghost, named for the scholar who popularized it, John Henry Pepper. “That effect is 100 years old,” Beatty said, referring to a technique that uses plate glass and lighting to make it seem as if objects are disappearing and reappearing. Also look for the portrait of the man over the fireplace: every so often lighting flashes and the portrait morphs from prince to Beast.

A big challenge for any theme park is line management, and Disney takes it seriously. There is typically something to do or watch to take the pain out of waiting. And the lines in New Fantasyland are some of the most entertaining yet.

In Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid, songs and Audio-Animatronics re-create the story of the animated film. Guests board clam-shaped vehicles that glide through various scenes, including the mermaid’s underwater grotto. The ride is similar to others Disney has done, but the line for it is more interesting because you can play a nifty game with digital crabs created using the Pepper’s Ghost effect, according to David Minichiello, director, creative development, with Walt Disney Imagineering.

Should you happen to be in line for Ariel’s Grotto at high noon on any Nov. 18 (Mickey Mouse’s birthday), you may find a “hidden Mickey” — images or outlines of Mickey Mouse that are slyly added to the design of a building or an attraction. There are hundreds of them in the parks (the book Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Walt Disney World’s Best Kept Secrets attempts to catalogue them) but on the 18th, sunlight will stream through the rocks to create one of the most unusual (and fleeting) hidden Mickeys.

These interactive lines have long been a Disney specialty, but even Disney found it challenging to wrangle people at Dumbo the Flying Elephant, which has been expanded and set in New Fantasyland. Waiting in that line in the sweltering heat could sometimes feel more like an endurance test on Survivor than the prelude to soaring with a magical pachyderm.

How to fix the line? Imagineers simply got rid of it. Now, visitors enter an air-conditioned circus-themed play area with slides and climbing nets. A sign says “Play while you wait!” Instead of standing in line, guests receive a pager and can play until they are notified it’s their turn to fly.

“What was a couple of minutes on Dumbo is now an immersive 15 minutes,” said Phil Holmes, vice president of Magic Kingdom Park.

While Disney prizes “guest experience” over thrills, this setup could backfire; I saw some children more interested in hanging out in the play area than taking Dumbo for a whirl.

New Fantasyland is cotton candy: light and sweet. It made room for princesses loved by Disney’s youngest fans without crowding out my memories.

Yet I did miss some of the vintage Disney: mainly Snow White’s Scary Adventures. Is something lost now that the ride is gone? Yes. A bit of, well, scariness. For that reason, many parents are glad it’s banished, and I understand. Still, that spooky ride was in the spirit of fairy tales as they are in books, before they are Disneyfied. Once upon a time, there was something to be said for that: a happy ending is meaningless if the journey is a cakewalk.

A DAY IN THE PARK

Having visited Walt Disney World more than two dozen times, I’ve learned how to make my own magic. Here’s my idea of a perfect day.

9 a.m.: Breakfast

You’re going to be doing a lot of walking, and the food in the parks can be bland, so fuel up. I love a breakfast buffet. For omelettes made to order, oatmeal and juice extracts like wheatgrass, go to Fresh Mediterranean Market at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel.

10 a.m.: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

When time is of the essence, I add to my ticket the Park Hopper Option, which allows me to bounce back and forth among Magic Kingdom Park, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. From the Dolphin, take a short, relaxing boat ride to Hollywood Studios (free for guests of Walt Disney World Resort hotels). Must sees: Star Tours—The Adventures Continue, in which a flight-motion simulator takes you into space with Star Wars characters, now in digital 3-D. For a real spin, try the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, set to the band’s music. The ride is in the dark; feel free to sing along. Skip the Great Movie Ride (unless you need a nap).

1 p.m.: Lunch on the BoardWalk

Take a boat or walk to Disney’s waterfront BoardWalk, an eating and shopping area linking Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Grab a slice of pizza or sit outdoors at Big River Grille & Brewing Works.

2:30 p.m.: Stroll to Epcot

The BoardWalk to Epcot is lovely and uncrowded because everyone else is on the bus or monorail. Don’t miss the new ride, Soarin’. (Try to sit in the front row.) If you are traveling with others and haven’t yet been on Spaceship Earth, do it. You’ll emerge with a funny digital souvenir of your vacation.

4:30 p.m.: cocktail hour(s)

Go to La Cava del Tequila in the Mexico Pavilion. Order chips and guacamole, and the San Angel Inn margarita. This isn’t a good margarita for Walt Disney World; it’s a good margarita — period.

At Epcot, avoid the mall-like atmosphere of Sunshine Seasons and the fast food at Electric Umbrella. Go to the Morocco Pavilion instead for live music, belly dancing and couscous with vegetables at Restaurant Marrakesh. Attention shoppers: Morocco has great costume jewelry and straw bags.

9:30 p.m.: Light Show

Time for the IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth light show! If you’ve already seen it, the Magic Kingdom has a new projection show, Celebrate the Magic, that’s spectacular. While there, hit the classic rides: the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. If it’s a regular fireworks night, consider viewing them from inside the nearby Contemporary Resort or — better yet— on board a monorail, which you will find delightfully empty during the show. Lean back. Swish by.